A Will Eternal

Corpse Peak’s grand elder clasped hands and then hurried away, more confident than before that Nightcrypt might be able to concoct the Inverse Blood Corpse Refining Pill. However, after leaving, he hesitated for a moment, and then sat down cross-legged nearby.

“I should stand guard myself to make sure there are no accidents!” Having made up his mind, he even summoned Corpse Peak’s ten bloodstreak elders over to stand guard with him.

This was treatment that normally only a blood master would receive....

Bai Xiaochun ignored what was happening on the outside. Deep in the necropolis, he paced about excitedly. In all his years concocting medicine, he had never concocted a major pill like this before!

“Anything tier-6 and higher is a high-level medicine!” Bai Xiaochun took a deep breath. Ignoring the murderous auras emanating from the forty-nine corpses, he took some time to examine the lake of blood.

The blood-water in the lake contained a mixture of Heavenspan River water and with powerful blood qi.

As for the forty-nine corpses, all of them had been specially selected, and even though they were only pallid zombies, they were all at the peak of Qi Condensation. Not a wound could be seen on any of them, and they possessed powerful corpse auras.

After some observation, Bai Xiaochun was very pleased. He sat down cross-legged, and then used an entire day to meditate and get himself in the optimal mental state. When his eyes opened, he waved his right hand, sending medicinal plants flying out of his bag of holding. As they floated in front of them, he made grasping gestures, causing the plants to break apart and turn into liquid.

More and more plants were added to the liquid, and as Bai Xiaochun observed the process, he called upon the All-Creation Plants and Vegetation techniques to analyze and adjust matters. Then he sent the liquid into the corpses around him.

The medicinal liquid almost seemed to possess intelligence as it poured into the bodies of the zombies.

“The corpse pills created by each of the forty-nine zombies might seem identical, but actually, they all have minute variations. Generally speaking, the pills all need to be intentionally incomplete, with a tiny gap left.

“The most difficult part of the concocting process is using the gaps in all of the forty-nine corpse pills to bind them together. Then, their complementary aspects will merge together to form the final major pill.” Sweat began to drip down Bai Xiaochun’s forehead, but he didn’t notice, as he was completely immersed in the concocting process.

Time passed. Before long, half a month had gone by. Things were quiet on Corpse Peak, and soon, the cultivators there started to relax. Many of them were starting to think that the cultivators of Middle Peak had really made a mountain out of a molehill when it came to Nightcrypt’s pill concocting. There didn’t seem to be anything terrifying about it at all....

An entire month went by, and nothing at all happened on Corpse Peak. By this point, the cultivators there were all very relaxed. As for the cultivators from Middle Peak, they were all shocked.

After hearing that Nightcrypt had gone to Corpse Peak, they had been prepared for a great spectacle. However, after two months passed, and Corpse Peak seemed the same as ever, the Middle Peak cultivators were starting to feel a bit resentful.

“How come we’re the unlucky ones? I can’t believe it! Nothing has happened at all now that Plaguedevil is on Corpse Peak!!”

“Why are there no exploding furnaces? Why is there no diarrhea outbreak? This isn’t fair!”

“Don’t tell me that Plaguedevil has had a change of character?”

Another half month passed. The cultivators of Corpse Peak were completely at ease, and some of them had even forgotten about the fact that Nightcrypt was there concocting pills. But not the Middle Peak cultivators. They continued to stare at Corpse Peak, as if they refused to rest until they saw the place descend into misfortune.

It was around that time that Bai Xiaochun finally finished with the first step of the Inverse Blood Corpse Refining Pill. The forty-nine corpses had been sufficiently imbued with the proper medicinal plants, and now he began to use the bloodflame stones to increase the temperature of the blood lake. Soon the medicinal liquid inside of the forty-nine corpses began to seethe.

Another month passed, and the Middle Peak cultivators felt dead inside. They were furious at the unfairness of the situation, and were starting to think that Nightcrypt didn't deserve to be called Plaguedevil.

But then, something happened!

The forty-nine corpses began to slowly wither. As they did, Bai Xiaochun’s expression brightened, and he performed constant incantation gestures, which, in turn, caused one gray corpse pill after another to rise up out of the lake of blood.

“The critical moment has arrived!” Bai Xiaochun took a deep breath, then sent out a stream of thought, which caused the emerald zombie to open its eyes. Suddenly, forty-nine green hairs emerged from the emerald zombie, which spread out and pierced into the forty-nine corpse pills, then began to absorb them.

The corpse pills rapidly withered, and soon transformed into nothing more than ash. All of their essence had been absorbed by the emerald zombie, and was transformed into forty-nine streams of flowing energy.

Bai Xiaochun’s expression turned very serious as he hurried over to the emerald zombie, where he waved his right hand back and forth through the air. Almost immediately, the emerald zombie became like a pill furnace, and the forty-nine streams of energy inside it began to form together into the Inverse Blood Corpse Refining Pill.

As he waved his hand, the emerald zombie trembled, and its expression twisted and distorted as violent bursts of energy began to pulse out of it. Bai Xiaochun’s hair was in disarray, and he looked very nervous. He waved his right hand, and the emerald zombie suddenly flew into the air and then descended into the lake of blood.

The blood lake almost immediately began to bubble and boil. Bai Xiaochun also flew up into the air, where he settled down cross-legged and began to perform double-handed incantation gestures. With every movement of his fingers, the lake of blood would erupt with blood qi, which poured into the emerald zombie.

Three days passed by in a flash. During that time, the forty-nine streams of energy inside of the emerald zombie seemed incapable of fusing together. Every time they were about to, they would spontaneously separate. The emerald zombie’s body was beginning to shrivel, and some parts of it even seemed to be hovering on the verge of collapse. As it struggled, its fangs, claws, bone spurs, and green hair all appeared in full, and began to distort. However, it seemed impossible to restore them to their original condition.

“How could this be happening?!” Bai Xiaochun was starting to get very nervous. It seemed that if he kept going, the emerald zombie might be destroyed. However, he wasn’t willing to allow this concoction to fail. He suddenly reached up with his hand and pushed down onto his forehead, causing his forehead to split open, and his Heavenspan Dharma Eye to appear. As soon as it did, he could clearly see the forty-nine streams of energy inside the emerald zombie, and how they were completely mixed and jumbled.

The jumbled energy streams were apparently a result of the blood-water in the lake of blood. Although the blood-water was a precious material on Corpse Peak, Bai Xiaochun could now see how mixed and impure it was.

At this critical juncture, the jumbled energy streams were polluting the emerald zombie and making it impossible for the corpse auras to merge together.

“Dammit! How come the blood-water medicinal liquid is so impure!?” Bai Xiaochun was getting very nervous. He knew that, to most other people, the medicinal liquid in the blood lake could be considered unusually pure. Actually, the type of liquid most cultivators used in corpse refining was much less pure.

But Bai Xiaochun cultivated the Undying Live Forever Technique, and his Undying Blood qi was the most authentic. That was why the blood lake seemed so impure to him.

“I need to figure out a way to purify it as quickly as possible. There’s no time to waste here. I'm going to have to use drastic methods!” Seeing that the emerald zombie wouldn’t be able to hold on for much longer, he gritted his teeth and waved his right hand. Instantly, a hundred different types of medicinal plants appeared. Bai Xiaochun’s eyes glittered as he made various mental calculations, and then began to fuse the medicinal plants together. By calling upon the All-Creation Plants and Vegetation techniques, he fused the plants, ignited them, and then sent them flying into the lake of blood.

As they flew through the air, they transformed into a medicinal liquid. When that entered the blood lake, a powerful expulsion force erupted out, and the burning caused a black smoke to rise up and fill the area.

The fire wasn’t on the surface of the lake, but down inside. As it burned, vast quantities of black smoke roiled up, which merged into the walls. At the same time, the blood-water in the lake was significantly reduced.

It was a dangerous, crude method, and the black smoke was not only difficult to get rid of, but also extremely filthy.

However, Bai Xiaochun didn't have any time for other considerations. It didn’t take long for the burning fire to release more and more black smoke, which fused into the walls and spread out through all of Corpse Peak.

As it did, the flame inside of the lake transformed from black to violet, and finally, red. More than ninety percent of the blood-water was gone, and yet, the bit that remained had absolutely no impurities whatsoever. Bai Xiaochun performed an incantation gesture and pointed out, and the remaining blood-water flowed toward the emerald zombie. As it merged into it, Bai Xiaochun howled. The forty-nine streams of energy finally fused together, and the corpse auras began to combine.

As they did, they formed a vortex in the emerald zombie’s dantian region, whereupon the shape of a major pill could be seen!

Bai Xiaochun was starting to get excited, and he was staring directly at the pill. He had resolved all of the issues that seemed like they might lead to a failure. It was at that point that he suddenly remembered the black smoke....

“Ah, probably shouldn’t be a big deal....” he thought, looking over at the walls. The smoke had contained many impurities, and he felt a bit bad about that. He actually wasn't sure what might happen as a result....

However, after reminding himself that he had repeatedly warned the blood master and the grand elder, who had subsequently guaranteed that there would be no problems, he felt a bit more at ease.

He even rubbed his bag of holding, which contained the Song Clan patriarch’s command medallion, and felt even better. “I haven’t betrayed the sect,” he thought.

With that, he continued to focus on the concocting process.

And that was when the strange things started happening on Corpse Peak....

The first odd event to play out occurred with a young cultivator who was currently intently focused on his work refining a corpse. At the moment, the corpse was floating in a blood cistern in front of the young man....

He didn’t notice it, but a strange aura suddenly emerged from the wall and began to fill the area. Before long, the young cultivator began to tremble, and he ceased with his incantation gestures. Rising to his feet with a look of unprecedented seriousness on his face, he rushed out of his immortal's cave and then blasted a hole in the ground.

After leaping into the hole, he began to bury himself with mud, all the way up to his waist. Raising both hands up above his head, he began to slowly sway back and forth....